It starts out as an innocuous video on Instagram in which Angela Price — wife of Canadiens goalie Carey Price — talks about a number of baby books filled with helpful tips.

Near the end of the video, however, Price broaches the topic of childhood vaccines as she holds up The Vaccine Book, a highly controversial tome written by a California pediatrician whose medical licence was restricted to 35 months’ probation last year.

“I want to talk about this book, though, because I absolutely loved it,” Price says in the video, posted Tuesday.

“I think the biggest problem with vaccines is people aren’t educating themselves,” she adds. “You don’t know what you’re putting into your child. So this book is not for or against it. It just breaks down each vaccine and tells you exactly what’s in it, what risks are associated with it, how serious the disease is associated with it. It’s just a great way to start to educate yourself on vaccines.”

“I do do most of the vaccines, not all of them, and I do an alternative schedule.”

Dr. Bob Sears, who wrote The Vaccine Book, proposes the alternative schedule that has come under sharp criticism by pediatricians and virologists. Critics warn that parents who follow the schedule unwittingly expose their children to potentially fatal infectious diseases because shots are given at later ages.

On Wednesday, Canada’s chief health officer weighed in on the vaccine debate, releasing a statement on the dangers of misleading information that often pops up on social media, contributing to what she called “vaccine hesitancy.”

“Seeds of doubt are often planted by misleading, or worse, entirely false information being spread in campaigns that target parents on social media and the internet,” Dr. Theresa Tam said in response to the current measles outbreak in Vancouver.

As a result of the misinformation, “some parents may question, hesitate or delay vaccinating their children,” Tam added.

Angela Price, who often posts photos of her daughters on Instagram, was not immediately available for comment via her Twitter account. In her video post, she doesn’t say which vaccines she chooses not to give her children.

“So like today, Millie will only get two vaccines because I only do one live vaccine each time,” she explains, alluding to her 14-month-old daughter. “Sorry, it’s kind of confusing, but again, I’m not opening up myself for conversation (on vaccines). I don’t want to see (inaudible) comment about it, but I get asked about it so I wanted to share. So yeah, I recommend educating yourself.”

Dr. John M. Snyder, a pediatrician who is an outspoken critic of The Vaccine Book, said in an interview that the alternative schedule is a public-health menace. Synder also took issue with “misinformed” celebrities who use their fame to fear monger about vaccines.

“So the schedule basically spaces out vaccines, spreads them out and in some cases recommends not getting certain vaccines at all,” Snyder said. “There’s no reason to space them out because the (government-recommended) schedule is designed very intentionally to maximize the benefit of the vaccine.

“So what that means is you’re prolonging the period during which these babies could be potentially exposed to these infections, and delay the vaccine getting into the babies,” Snyder added. “It’s dangerous.”

Snyder, who practises pediatrics in Amherst, Mass., has written an extensive post on The Vaccine Book, accusing the author of “cashing in on fear” and pointing out examples of inaccurate information, including on the measles.

Synder quotes a passage from the book in which Sears writes: “Is measles serious? Usually not. Most cases, especially in children, pass within a week or so without any trouble.”

Synder argued that “there is no such thing as a mild case of measles. Everybody gets horribly ill with measles. You should never in a million years confuse measles with the common cold.”

Synder suggested Sears’s message is especially insidious because he’s a pediatrician and should know better.

“We talk about why we strongly want parents to vaccinate, but some parents will say, ‘Why should I believe you over a doctor who has written a book about it? Have you written a book about it?’ So on the one hand, they’re ignoring the true authorities on vaccines who spend their lives studying them, yet they’ll believe this so-called authority because he’s a pediatrician and meanwhile he represents an incredible minority, an extreme viewpoint which is not in line with any of the science.”

Sears, who was the subject of a complaint that he wrote a letter exempting a child from future vaccines, was not available to respond to an email sent to his clinic.